Environment

Social Psychologists Approach the study of the environment in two ways
Studying peoples impact on the environment
Studying the environments impact on people
Social Dilemmas
Involve conflicts between short­term self­interest and long­term collective interest
Individuals are tempted to act selfishly in the short term because they will benefit, but everyone will benefit if
people resist the urge to act in their won short­term self­interest
Worry that others will act selfishly
Temptation to act selfishly
Social Traps
Short­term pleasure leading to long­term pain
Ex. Overeating ▯ negative health outcomes (obesity)
Long­term outcome is less certain than short­term
People tend to discount the long­term outcomes
Public Good Problem
Dilemmas about whether to voluntarily contribute to a project where everyone will benefit
Contributing has a cost
Risky: if not enough people contribute but you do, you have wasted time and money and the project fails
But, if enough people contribute (and you don’t) the project will still succeed and you benefit.
An entity that relies on contributions
Everyone has access to the entity, whether or not they contribute (public parks, charities)
Resource Dilemma
Many natural resources that humans consume are non­renewable, or take a long time to be replenished
This leads to resource dilemmas, in which individuals must choose between acting in their own self­interest
and acting in the interest of society
What Factors Lead People to Cooperate
Personality Trust
Social value orientation
Consideration of future consequences
Cultural factors
More cooperation in collectivist cultures
Evolutionary influences
Kin selection
Characteristics of decision
Less cooperation when uncertainty over size of resources and replenishment of resources is high
More cooperation when decisions are framed as moral
More cooperation when people believe their contribution is critical to success
Connection Between environmental attitudes and behaviors
Pro­environmental attitudes are only weakly linked to pro­environmental behaviors
Barriers to adopting pro­environmental behaviors include
Social context
Cognitive factors
Intervention to Promote Pro­environmental behavior
Based on theory of planned behavior
8 weeks: weigh recycling produced by 480 households
1 week later place hangers on houses
Weigh recycling